November 22nd to December 18th 2005
Embarked on a 20-date UK tour with Shakin’ Stevens starting in Eastbourne and finishing in London at the Shepherds Bush Empire. I think the 7-piece band did a marvellous job of delivering the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ goods night after night. Including myself, five out of the seven band members are in my band: Peter Effamy on tenor sax who has been my best mate since we were eleven; Paul Newton on trumpet who’s little girl, Zosia, is my God daughter; Martyn Hope on lead guitar whom I met in 1987 at music college in Leeds, and; Darren Loveday on lead and rhythm guitar who co-produced ‘Come And Get It’ with me. The other two members of the band are legends of the British rock ‘n’ roll music scene, Howard Tibble on drums and Stuart Colman on bass. Both of these gentlemen were around right at the beginning of Shaky’s rise to fame and played key roles in securing his success throughout the 80’s. The two highlights of the tour for me were having my fellow Suzi Quatro band members Dick Hanson (trumpet) in Oxford and Ray Beavis (sax) in Plymouth come and see the show as MY guests. I would never have imagined that back in the mid 80’s as I watched Shakin’ Stevens in concert that twenty years later two of the guys up there in that amazing band would come and see ME play virtually the same songs, as MY guests…and friends! Strange old world! I’d like to say a big hello to all the wonderful Shaky fans that I met along the tour. You’re a passionate, loyal and attractive bunch and any artist would give their right arm for fans like you, especially at this stage of their career. Thank you for your support. It was a pleasure to play for you.

October 8th 2005

Played with Suzi Quatro at the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain’s annual convention. Suzi had been asked to play there because of ‘Singing With Angels’, an Elvis tribute song that she had written and recorded in Nashville in May featuring James Burton and The Jordanaires. On this night not only was Suzi on the bill but also the TCB Band (Elvis’ rhythm section from 1969 to 1977)…well, at least three of them. It was great to meet two more of my heroes in Jerry Scheff and Glenn D. Hardin and to meet James Burton again. I hadn’t seen him since 2001 just before he recorded his guitar part for my recording of ‘The Wonder Of You’. Suzi, of course, performed her Elvis tribute and James joined us on stage for it. What was special to me that night was not only the gig itself but running through the song before the show with James, Suzi, Tim Smith, Darren Loveday, Dick Hanson and myself in a little circle, all singing and playing at each other. I couldn’t take my eyes off James. His guitar playing, even through a crummy old practice amp, was exquisite. As a huge Elvis fan, I loved this moment. I kept thinking to myself, how many times must James Burton have run through a song with Elvis like this just before a show? And that’s who Elvis would have been looking at. Walk a mile in my shoes!

September 15th 2005
Flew to Dublin to appear as Ronnie Corbett’s special guest in his live stand-up show at the Olympia Theatre as part of the Bulmer International Comedy Festival. The place was packed and the noise of the audience when he walked on, to the Two Ronnies theme tune, was truly breathtaking. They loved him…who wouldn’t? Ronnie had asked me to do a 30-minute set in the first half and to join him at the end of the show to do a song with him. We organised for the guys in my band, namely Paul Murphy on drums, Neil Fairclough on bass/vocals and Darren Loveday on guitar/vocals, to not only play for my set but to also back Ronnie in the second half with Ronnie’s musical director Don Hunt on piano. To choose the right songs and make them work with a 4-piece band for an audience who have come to see Ronnie Corbett was a challenge…but one I’d like to think we met. It was a fabulous night and probably the highlight of my year.

September 4th 2005
The Elio Pace Band performed at Bill Kenwright’s 60th Birthday Bash in Mayfair, London. It was great to get Bill up to sing ‘Things’ by Bobby Darin, but I have to say that the highlight of the evening for me was inviting Kiki Dee onto the stage to sing with me, her and Elton John’s classic, ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’. A real buzz!

September 1st 2005
After being asked to be part of her new solo career I played my second gig with Katrina Leskanich. (The first being back in August 2000 when, as a fifteen- piece, The Elio Pace Band backed Katrina at an outdoor concert in Chichester). With just Darren Loveday on guitar/vocals and myself on piano/vocals, Katrina blew everyone away with her fantastic voice, charm and charisma.

August 22nd 2005
I was extremely flattered to have been one of a number of people asked by Kevin Campbell to perform a set at a special charity fundraising event for the percussionist, Martin David. I had gigged with Martin a few times in Kevin Healy’s band and was totally shocked to hear that Martin had cancer. It was a real show of love and support and respect that so many amazing musicians turned out for him that night.

I’m sorry and saddened to say that Martin passed away on December 1st 2005, aged 53.

August 6th 2005
Performed a one-off open-air gig with Shakin’ Stevens in the Faroe Islands. During our three-day visit to these gorgeous isolated islands, our hosts treated us to the most wonderful eight hours of sailing in the North Sea on a fishing vessel. Whilst at sea, we were served up the most delicious fresh fish, crab and mussels you could imagine. We were also treated to a beautiful solo violin recital by Heidrun Petersen, whilst bobbing about on a life boat deep inside a dark cave renowned in the Faroe Islands for it’s incredible natural acoustics. Heidrun is a classical music star of the future… You heard it here first!

June 29th 2005
Recorded a piano session on a new song by Katrina Leskanich (formerly of Katrina And The Waves) called ‘Broken Arrow’ due for release on her debut solo album later in the year. Darren Loveday, guitarist in my band for eight years, produced the track. www.katrinasweb.com

June 24th 2005

My first appearance on ‘Top Of The Pops’ again miming to Shaky’s new single ‘Trouble’.

April 9th 2005
Appeared ‘live’ with Shakin’ Stevens on ITV’s ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, a sort of X-Factor for celebrities. The band mimed to our pre-recorded backing tracks of ‘This Ole House’ and ‘Trouble’ whilst Shaky sang live. He won the heat, which put him into the final on May 21st. I knew straight away that I wouldn’t be able to be there on that date as I already had confirmed a gig with Suzi Quatro. Shaky went on to win the final, which led to…

April 6th 2005
Played my first gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London with Shakin’ Stevens. This show was filmed and I assume will be released sometime in the future.

April 5th 2005
Appeared on GMTV with Shakin’ Stevens miming to ‘Oh Julie’. His first major TV interview for many years.

March 8th 2005
Managed to squeeze in a holiday!!! My girlfriend Helen and I took ourselves off to New York for some shopping and show seeing.
We stayed with our great buddies Van and Vikki. Van is currently touring the USA playing Hank Williams in ‘Lost Highway’ and Vikki can currently be seen hosting her own programme on Channel 4 in the hugely successful series ‘It’s Me Or The Dog’. Vikki’s website is www.victoriastilwell.com

March 6th 2005
Played at the wedding of Neil & Davina Fairclough. I’m very proud to say that Neil has not only been my bass player for eleven years and is a ‘monster’ musician but is also one of my very best friends. It was an honour to entertain his guests on his and Davina’s big day. Needless to say, Neil had the night off from playing in the band and in his place was the awesome Ian King.

March 5th 2005
Met Geraint Watkins, one of my piano-playing heroes. I was in Cologne with Suzi Quatro and Geraint was there with Dave Edmonds playing in the same show as us, so I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him. Geraint was the piano-player on all of Shakin’ Stevens’ early hits including ‘This Ole House’, ‘Green Door’, ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ and ‘It’s Raining’. The latter has a piano solo by Geraint that, as a 15 year-old, changed my piano-playing forever. I told him how I had been given the day off school with a cold and had made use of the day by learning his solo. I had always loved it and had wanted to discover exactly what those amazing ‘crunchy’ bluesy sounds were that didn’t exist in my own piano-playing vocabulary at the time. By the end of the day I had cracked it! That day off school turned out to be a turning point for me and learning Geraint’s solo, one of the best lessons I ever had.